Recommended Books

This page provides a list of books for technical communication professionals.
If you find any broken links, please contact me and let me know.

On CSS

The following three books offer varied approaches to handling CSS design problems:

CSS To The Point
Author: Scott DeLoach
First Ed., ISBN-13: 978-0-6152-1213-5
A concise desktop reference written by a Flare and CSS expert. Its cookbook-style approach will lead you quickly to the right solution. Recommended for beginners and intermediate users.
Cascading Style Sheets: Designing for the Web
Authors: Hakon Wium Lie and Bert Bos
Third Ed., ISBN-13: 978-0-321-19312-4
The classic text written by the creators of CSS, this book is a cross between a tutorial and a reference. Recommended for users of all levels.
CSS: The Definitive Guide
Author: Eric Meyer
Third Ed., ISBN-13: 978-0-596-52733-4
A comprehensive reference book by a CSS guru. Recommended for intermediate to advanced users.

On Information Architecture

The following two books are my favorite IA resources:

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
Authors: Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld
Third Edition, ISBN-13: 978-0-596-52734-1
The First Edition of the now-famous “polar bear book” (referring to the O’Reilly cover image) was published in 1998. At that time, information architecture was a new concept, and the authors devoted many pages to simply defining the profession.

The Third Edition shows how much the profession has matured. It provides solid advice for organizations who want to ensure that their web site is an essential part of their business strategy. It builds on the strengths of the two previous editions with much revision and expansion. It discusses more recent practices such as tagging, folksonomies, social classification, and guided navigation.

If you need a starting place for designing effective site organization and search systems, this book can help. The overview chapters on both subjects provide excellent guidance.

If you want to build a solid foundation in information architecture, I highly recommend that you start with this book.
Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web
Authors: Christina Wodtke and Austin Govella
Third Edition, ISBN-13: 978-0-321-60080-6
Christina Wodtke was the sole author of this book’s first edition, published in 2002. She teamed with co-author Austin Govella for the second edition, published in 2009.
This book is a straightforward, concise handbook for practicing IAs. It’s also an excellent guide and resource for anyone tasked with improving a the organization and findability of a company website. Far more hands-on than theoretical, this book offers practical advice on everything from navigation, taxonomy, and search to social media considerations.

Regardless of where you are in your IA career, I recommend that you buy this book. If you’re starting your first project and need to cut to the chase, buy it now and keep it on your desk.